Distinct functional roles of distributed cortical representations for working memory storage

Abstract

AbstractWhile distributed cortical areas represent working memory contents, their necessity for memory maintenance has been questioned. To understand whether these regions serve separable functional roles when multiple items are maintained, we examined the effect of visual working memory load on neural information across cortical regions. We show that increasing visual load decreased behavioural recall performance and item-specific mnemonic information in visual cortex but not in anterior regions. Both items, irrespective of their serial position, were represented in visual cortex, whereas sPCS maintained only the most recent item. Our results provide evidence for distinct functional roles of visual cortices, where single items are stored with high fidelity, and anterior cortices, where multiple items are represented using different cortical patterns.